His part is small, but Richard Crenna made this movie for me - I don't think I ever saw him as good. Maddie may describe him as "small and mean and weak," but when you first see him you know that only the middle adjective is applicable. He is so clearly an alpha lion to Hurt's slick weasel that a sense of physical folly in Ned Racine's actions is added to the one of legal folly. This is climaxed when Edmund, to Maddie's surprise, takes a gun from the nightstand when he hears Ned downstairs. Should Maddie assist the man she's been using, or the one more likely to win a confrontation? She resolves this dilemma in a shocking sentence.
But if Ned hadn't wanted to believe Maddie's description of her husband, if he used the right organ to think with - we wouldn't have much of a movie, would we?
But if Ned hadn't wanted to believe Maddie's description of her husband, if he used the right organ to think with - we wouldn't have much of a movie, would we?